When a TV receiver is developed and released, not all functionality that might ever be desired of the TV can be included or even foreseen. For example, an improved video compression paradigm requiring a complementary decoder to play the video might be introduced after a TV is sold, in which case the TV would not have the requisite decoding capability to play video transmitted in the newer compression paradigm.
While some products may possess the capability to be remotely updated via a software update, a television might not have such a capability. Furthermore, simply updating a product with software or with a new interface has shortcomings, such as not being able to accommodate industry standards for copy protection and not possessing innate mechanisms to restrict access to the interface, which is otherwise required to prevent unapproved devices from being attached to the interface.
In co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/782,078, incorporated herein by reference, the present assignee has disposed a set back box (SBB) for upgrading with digital capability a TV having a chassis holding a TV processor, an analog TV receiver, and no digital TV receiver. The SBB includes a housing and a digital TV receiver in the housing. The digital TV receiver is connectable through a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) cable to the TV processor so that signals on digital channels received by the SBB can be displayed on the TV. The housing of the SBB is slidably engageable with a rear of the chassis of the TV.
As recognized herein, it may be desirable to establish not only a HDMI path between the TV and SBB but also a secondary path such as a universal serial bus (USB) path to facilitate communication of, e.g., control information. As further understood herein, it is desirable to avoid forcing the end user to make multiple wired connections between components. As also recognized herein, making a single large connector with both HDMI and USB pin-outs may not be feasible due to license constraints that permit approved interfaces only.